Albion

I am interested in constructing a 1/7 scale, working model of HMS Victorious (R38) as she appeared between 1942-45. The vessel would be designed to operate scale model aircraft appropriate for the time period and be navigated from a station in the ship's island versus remotely. I would like to make the model as accurate as possible with regards to hull form but I am having difficulty in finding line drawings or any other construction plans for the vessel. Also, having never built a scale model before I am looking for advice with regards to making scale gun mounts, ships boats, etc.

alan2525

Welcome to the Forums!

There's a couple of thing I didn't quite understand in your post:

1) 1:7 Scale HMS Victorious - Wont the model be about 100 feet long?
2) The part where you mention that you have...never built a scale model before...

Wouldn't it be wiser to start on something a little smaller? A Scale MTB, a little steam tug or a 1:700 HMS Victorious?

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Albion

Your'e correct about the scale, it would be in the region of 106 feet in length. You are also correct in that I have never built a "scale model of anything" at least not from scratch. I am however an experienced boat builder and very familiar with constructing working craft in the 100 ft range. I would have no difficulty in taking a set of construction plans for HMS Victorious reduce the scale and then turn out a 100ft hull. What I am not familiar with is the sort of nuances that go into taking a 740 ft aircraft carrier and making a 100 ft boat that not only looks just like it, but has the feel of it, certainly there are methods that scale modelers use to bring this about?

alan2525

I was asuming you must be either an experienced boat builder or it was a very late April Fools Joke!

What's the storey with the 1:7th scale aircraft carrier - Is the build a comission for a naval museum or something or do you have a very large front room with a very large empty glass case waiting for something to go inside? As far as plans - I'd go for purchasing the largest scale kit I could find and then making a set of plans from that - in something that scale a foot here or there won't notice too much!

Also what are your plans for modelling aircraft for the flight deck? Would be worth spending the time making moulds and then producing the parts in bulk! What was the reason for modelling the ship 1:7th it seems an odd scale - If you went for 1:6 you could use action men as crew!

You could also check out the thread on a proposed build of a 21foot HMS Hood on these very forums:

http://www.scale-models.co.uk/showth...highlight=hood

I would have thought the problems you both face regarding sourcing plans and scaling up details from smaller models, reliance on images and photographic images for research, etc would both be similar for the two builds.

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RickF

Since you will be presumably be building the hull as a full-size ship, the obvious place to start is with the drawings that are almost certainly available from the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich http://www.nmm.ac.uk/ They should have everything you need - at a price.

Rick

Albion

The project is purely for my own enjoyment, the model won't be a display, when complete it will ride at a mooring in front of my house. I hadn't considered a kit. Setting the hull design aside, it would be a good idea to have a three dimensional model for reference purposes before and during construction.
As for the air group, I planned to acquire all of the aircraft as rc kits, or scratch build them if not available in the required scale. Although I plan to assemble a mixed group of between 30-40 airframes ( Corsairs, Fulmars, Avengers and Albacores) to display on the flight deck, obviously not all of these will be in flying condition, maybe only one of each type, depending on my time and budget. There will be aircraft elevators and a functioning hanger beneath the flight deck. I have not decided how to handle the aircraft when struck below, maybe a center isle deep enough for a person to stand in would work, since to scale the hanger would only be about thirty inches high.
The scale was selected based on my available building area, at 1/7 scale it will be close to 106 feet in length at 1/6 scale it goes to over 123 feet, oh it would be grande, but I just can't squeeze it in. I would build it smaller, but I very much want the ship to be a working vessel, able to launch and recover rc aircraft and accommodate a small crew to handle them while aboard.

MartinH-K

Good luck! I'm cutting bulkheads and fitting at the moment for my 1/35 scale Hood and that's going to be 7.49m but my scale is limited by available construction room as is yours.

Albion

Thanks, your HMS Hood sounds like a great project, big enough to have fun and turn some heads, yet still at a size where its manageable. I would go with a smaller scale for my own project, but I don't think that anything shorter would do.
I am still having difficulty in finding construction plans, the NMM doesn't seem to have them, and the largest model kit I have found so far is 1/400 by Heller. I have plenty of drawings and photois, but I would still very much like to have a full set of cross sections of the hull.

Bluewavestudios

Hi Albion and Welcome to the Forums,

As it happens I do know someone around here who sails a 1/75th Model of the very same ship and it is still quite a large model at 12 ft long, he transports it with a similar sized container ship on a specially built car trailer complete with extending slipway and sails both quite regularly on the pond close by me.

Have a look at this link, I posted this up sometime ago, I presume it is the very same ship.

The specs are on that thread and some pics of the container ship too on the dedicated trailer

http://www.scale-models.co.uk/showthread.php?t=701

If I see Ray that owns it, I will ask if he has any plans for it, I have a few more pics than shown on that post too.

Regards........Mark

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I'm Only Here Coz I'm Not All There !!!

RickF

Hard to believe that the NMM has nothing on this class of ship, but you could try these people. They list a plan as well as a GRP hull.

http://www.fleetscale.co.uk/system/index.html

Rick